RADON Testing

RADON is a colorless, tasteless gas that is a decay product of the element radium found in the soil around the world. It is dangerous to humans because it release intense radioactivity. Like second hand smoke, the particles that are release from radon gas get trapped in the lungs, as one breathes and release radioactive small bursts of energy as they break down. This ultimately damages the lung tissue and often leads to lung cancer.

The EPA recommends that a threshold level of 4.0 pico Curies / liter (piC/L)* of air be used as the trigger point for RADON mitigation and this has become the US standard for all Real Estate Sales. *(pico = 0.000,000,000,001 or 1 trillionth)

So that if you test and find your home has 4.0 piC/L of RADON your remediate, but if instead, your find only 3.9 piC/L of RADON, you let it go?! This really does not seem to make much sense. Moreover, it is recommended that when remediation is conducted, one should shoot for less than 2.5 piC/L. Boston Environmental recommends that any businesses or residences where RADON levels are found to be above 2.5 piC/L be remediated. Equally, important, although RADON mitigation is not cheap, its cost is among the lowest remediation actions that is conducted on a residence.

Boston Environmental conducts RADON testing with E-Perm Electrets. E-Perms are passive radon monitors and among the most accurate such devices available for testing RADON. These devices are not affected by temperature or humidity and well adapted to many different testing scenarios. These units must be order a few days before use, so that the laboratory can freshly charge the device. In use the voltage within the device decrease in proportion to the radon concentration and the time of the exposure.

As with all services provided, Boston Environmental does not provide remediation services, but will recommend competent remediation vendors at the client’s request.